This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 25, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: TH Heavy Engineering Bhd’s (THHE) net loss widened to RM33.44 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16), from RM18.85 million a year ago, mainly due to unrealised foreign-exchange (forex) losses of RM26.8 million.

Revenue fell 69.6% to RM14.52 million from RM47.8 million in 1QFY15, after completing prior-year projects with fewer ongoing ones.

In a bourse filing, TH Heavy said the ringgit strengthened to 3.92 against the US dollar as of end-March 2016, compared with 4.29 as of end-December 2015.

The note’s appreciation had resulted in a non-cash flow net foreign-currency translation loss. Without that, the group’s loss before tax (LBT) would be lower at RM14.6 million, compared to RM25.3 million in 1QFY15.

As at March 31, its outstanding main fabrication order book stood at RM132.5 million; its outstanding minor fabrication, crane manufacturing/repairs, and supply of equipment order book was at RM9.4 million.

THHE said it is exploring ways to raise funds to complete the Layang floating production storage and offloading conversion works, and to monetise and unlock value of the group’s assets to generate cash flows and improve working capital.

Moving forward, it expects the fabrication business to remain challenging. Meanwhile, it plans to expand into refurbishment and maintenance works, and non-oil-and-gas-related fabrication works.